Bingola Records

Bingola Records was a United States record label associated with the American branch of the German Bing Werke company. The label was created for Bing Corporation of New York City, whose parent company, Bing Werke of Nuremberg, was known for manufacturing toys and other consumer goods. Bing Werke entered the phonograph market in 1925 with a line of machines marketed as Bingophones, and Bingola appears to have been part of the company’s effort to provide or promote recorded entertainment alongside that hardware business. The records were manufactured by Grey Gull Records, a Boston, Massachusetts record company that operated a number of labels during the acoustic-record era. Bingola was not simply another long-running Grey Gull imprint: it appears to have been a specialized, short-duration label made for the Bing Corporation connection. The Bingola trademark was registered in October 1927, and surviving evidence indicates that records carrying the label were issued only briefly in 1927 and 1928. This limited production period, together with the small surviving number of copies, has made Bingola one of the rarest and least extensively documented labels associated with Grey Gull. Known Bingola releases reused masters that had already appeared on ordinary Grey Gull labels. This suggests that the label’s principal purpose was distribution, branding, or association with Bing’s phonograph business rather than the development of a separate recording operation with its own artists and studio repertoire. Although the underlying recordings could be shared with Grey Gull’s broader catalogue, Bingola assigned them catalogue numbers in a 1000-series that do not show an obvious connection to the equivalent releases on the company’s other labels. The numbering system therefore remains an important identifying feature for collectors and discographers. For many years, reference works treated Bingola 1008 as the highest known catalogue number. That understanding changed in 2008, when a copy identified as Bingola 1011 was sold through the vintage-record trade. The discovery expanded the known range of the label’s catalogue, while also illustrating how incomplete the surviving record of this short-lived imprint remains. Bingola Records is now defunct and survives primarily as a subject of discographical and collector interest. Its historical significance lies less in commercial scale than in the way it documents the relationship between a phonograph manufacturer, an American corporate branch, and an established record manufacturer during the late 1920s. The label also provides evidence of Grey Gull’s practice of reusing masters across branded imprints and of the specialized, sometimes ephemeral labels created for particular commercial arrangements.

Bingola Records emerged in the United States during the late 1920s as a label connected to Bing Corporation of New York City. Bing Corporation was the American branch of Bing Werke, a German company based in Nuremberg. In 1925, Bing Werke introduced a line of phonographs called Bingophones. The creation of a branded record imprint appears to have complemented that hardware business by giving the American branch a label through which records could be marketed in association with Bing’s phonograph products. The records were manufactured by Grey Gull Records of Boston, Massachusetts. Grey Gull was an active record producer with several labels and a catalogue of material that could be reused across different commercial imprints. Bingola therefore appears to have functioned as a specialized label rather than as an independent recording company with a fully separate production infrastructure. Surviving issues are known to reuse ordinary Grey Gull masters, indicating that the recordings themselves were drawn from Grey Gull’s existing repertoire or production system. Bingola’s trademark was registered in October 1927. Available discographical evidence suggests that the label was produced only briefly, during 1927 and 1928. The short period of activity, the limited number of surviving copies, and the absence of a long-running artist or release program have made Bingola one of the rarest and most short-lived labels manufactured by Grey Gull. The imprint used catalogue numbers in a 1000-series. These numbers do not appear to correspond directly to the catalogue numbering used for the same or related masters on Grey Gull’s other labels. As a result, the Bingola catalogue must be studied as its own numbering sequence, even when the audio content overlaps with releases issued elsewhere. For collectors and researchers, label design, catalogue number, and matrix or master information are consequently important in distinguishing Bingola pressings from related Grey Gull issues. Older reference works commonly identified Bingola 1008 as the highest known catalogue number. In 2008, however, a copy of Bingola 1011 was sold by vintage-record dealer Kurt Nauck. That sale provided evidence that the known catalogue extended beyond the previously accepted upper limit. It also underscored the fragmentary nature of the surviving documentation: the existence of a higher-numbered record does not by itself establish the full size or complete sequence of the label’s catalogue. Bingola Records did not develop into a continuing postwar label and is regarded as defunct. Its importance today is historical and discographical. The imprint illustrates how phonograph manufacturers and commercial distributors could use temporary record labels to support a product line, while relying on the manufacturing capacity and recorded masters of an established record company. It also preserves a small but useful connection between the American consumer market, Bing Werke’s international business, and Grey Gull’s dense network of early twentieth-century record labels.

• 2008

  Bingola 1011 is documented in a sale

  [1]Bingola Recordsen.wikipedia.org

  A copy of Bingola 1011 is sold through Kurt Nauck's vintage-record business, extending the highest reported catalogue number beyond the previously cited 1008.

• 1928

  Known production period ends

  [1]Bingola Recordsen.wikipedia.org

  Available evidence indicates that Bingola was produced only briefly through 1928.

• 1927

  Bingola trademark registered

  [1]Bingola Recordsen.wikipedia.org

  The Bingola name is registered as a trademark in October, marking the documented beginning of the label's brief commercial period.

• 1927

  Short production period begins

  [1]Bingola Recordsen.wikipedia.org

  Bingola records begin appearing during the late 1920s, manufactured by Grey Gull Records and using some previously issued Grey Gull masters.

• 1925

  Bing Werke introduces Bingophones

  [1]Bingola Recordsen.wikipedia.org

  Bing Werke of Nuremberg introduces its Bingophone phonograph line, establishing the product context later associated with the Bingola record imprint.

A short-lived, specialized phonograph-record imprint connected with Bing Corporation's Bingophone business and manufactured by Grey Gull Records.

• Phonograph records · 1927

  Bingola shellac records

  Bingola's principal products were shellac phonograph records issued under a 1000-series catalogue. The label's surviving releases are associated with Grey Gull's manufacturing operation and reused ordinary Grey Gull masters. The imprint consequently represented a branded distribution or marketing program rather than a wholly separate recording studio and artist system. Its brief 1927–1928 production period and scarcity make the records primarily collector and discographical artifacts today.

• Phonograph-record products · 1927

  Bingophone-associated record offerings

  The Bingola label was created for Bing Corporation, the American branch of the company whose parent introduced Bingophone machines in 1925. While the available evidence does not establish a complete bundled product program, the label can be understood as part of the commercial environment surrounding Bing's phonograph business. Its records supplied branded content related to that broader consumer-audio context.

• 2008

  Bingola 1011 expands the known catalogue range[1]Bingola Recordsen.wikipedia.org

  Other

  A copy of Bingola 1011 was sold through vintage-record dealer Kurt Nauck, revising the long-standing assumption that 1008 was the highest known Bingola catalogue number.

1. 1Bingola Recordsen.wikipedia.org